


A Chilling Reminder

by fandomsandxfiles



Series: Files From the FBI's Most Unwanted [7]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Case Fic, F/M, Light Angst, MSR, Mystery, Season/Series 11, William Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:54:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27177494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomsandxfiles/pseuds/fandomsandxfiles
Summary: A confusing set of deaths brings Mulder and Scully face to face with the unknown - and forces them to consider some of their regrets.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Series: Files From the FBI's Most Unwanted [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020487
Kudos: 22
Collections: X-Files Horror Fanfic Exchange (2020)





	A Chilling Reminder

**Author's Note:**

  * For [joanidiego51](https://archiveofourown.org/users/joanidiego51/gifts).



> My prompt word was "Spirits." 
> 
> I really hope you like this! I had a lot of fun writing it :)
> 
> This was beta'd by the lovely @danascully77 - thank you so much!!

It started out like any other day, with Mulder dropping a case file on her desk when he walked in. "Come on Scully," he said. "We've got a plane to catch and murders to solve." 

"Hang on Mulder, you haven’t even told me where we're going, or why."

"I'll tell you on the way," he said, grabbing her coat for her. "I had trouble getting us tickets, so we need to leave right now if we want to catch the flight." 

Scully was silent for a minute, staring at him; but eventually heaved a sigh and took her coat from his outstretched arms. "Fine," she said. "But this better be good." 

Luckily, they had a row to themselves on the plane, so no one was sitting in the aisle seat. Mulder started to doze off as the plane took off, but Scully poked him in the arm. "What?" he said, yawning slightly. 

"You can't fall asleep this time," she said. "I still don't know what this case is about." 

"I came across a newspaper article about this small town in Washington,there’s been four murders in the past month, and they’re at a loss for who did it." 

Scully flashed him a look of disbelief. "Mulder, whatever you think is going on there, it probably isn't. If it's a small town like you said, they probably just don't have the equipment or the manpower for something like this, especially if it’s never happened before."

"It's not that Scully," he insisted. "There's been three instances so far, and the victims’ hearts were all sawed out. And there’s no connection between the victims that they can see. Different ages, neighborhoods, careers, you name it. There's no plausible link between these people, and they were all murdered in a way that suggests some kind of emotional connection. Tell me that's not odd." 

"I'll agree that it's odd, but I highly doubt it's going to be anything even remotely resembling an X-File," Scully said. "Sometimes these things just happen." 

"We'll see when we land," Mulder responded. "I don't think this case is as open and shut as you think it is."

***

Mulder was right, this town was small. They'd been to some small towns before, each one with its own mystery, but there was something unsettling about this one in particular. Scully couldn't explain it, but she walked a little closer to Mulder than she might have anywhere else. If he noticed, he didn't say anything.

They made their way to the funeral home to meet with the coroner (because this was another town too small for a medical morgue facility), and Scully watched several of the people out on the street stop and stare at the two of them as they drove by. It was like they'd never seen anyone from outside their little town before. She noticed that children walked around unsupervised, and while a few of them walked in groups, many of the kids she saw walked alone. It struck her as odd, but she shook it off. Small towns always had more kids out and about without parents or friends because many of the people who lived there probably never believed something bad could ever happen in their sleepy little town. 

But Scully knew that bad things could happen anywhere, to anyone. She's seen enough death in the world to ever go back to believing in that it couldn’t happen where she was.

They were led into the back room of the funeral home and shown the bodies, and as much as Scully didn't want to admit it, maybe Mulder was onto something about this case. All four of the bodies had horrified expressions, faces contorted to show pain and fear. "You see why this is so confusing?" the town doctor,who also doubled as the medical examiner, said. "It's as if these people were frightened to death, but their hearts were also removed."

"There's no link between these people?" Scully asked, looking closer at one of the bodies. "No shared family member or friend?" 

"No ma'am," the doctor answered , shaking his head. "All four victims were in good health too, outside of the fact that they're dead."

Scully picked up the clipboard and started to look through the victim's charts. "It says here that one of the victims suffered from a stroke within the last year, and she was 78. Could that be a connection?” 

"I checked for that first," the doctor said. "None of the victims seemed to know each other at all and no one else appeared to have a prior health risk or injury. They were from completely different walks of life. And anyway, she was healthy just before she died. She kept to herself, and I don't think I ever saw her in town." 

"Who are the other victims?" Mulder asked. 

Scully flipped through the paperwork on the clipboard and started to read. "Charles and Mary White, both 35."

"They were found in their home, exactly as you see them," the doctor added. 

"They look terrified," Mulder commented. "What about their emotional history? Could that be the link?" 

"Two years ago they lost their infant daughter to the flu, and it caused them to pull away from everyone in town," the doctor answered. "But I don't see how that could connect to any of the other victims."

"What about the last victim?" Mulder asked. 

"Tim Reynolds, 21. He was a college student attending the local university," Scully read off. 

"So we have a 78 year old, two 35 year olds, and a 21 year old, with no link between their deaths except the fact that their hearts were cut out and they were all seemingly frightened to death," Mulder said, looking from the doctor to Scully. "Sounds like an X-File to me." 

After thanking the town doctor and taking the case files from him, it was finally time for them to leave and get settled in for the evening. "Mulder I don't think there is going to be a plausible explanation for this case," Scully said as they drove off. 

He turned to her and smiled. "Just another day at the office, right?" 

*** 

They were staying at a small bed and breakfast on the outskirts of town, and Scully was sitting on the swing in front of the building and watching the cars drive by. It was peaceful to watch everyone go about their lives, many of them only partially aware of what was going on. The newspaper articles that Mulder had shown her only mentioned the names of the victims and that they had all died, not the missing hearts or the matching expressions of fear all the corpses wore, and no mention of the mystery they were now faced with solving. 

She barely noticed a small child come up next to her, a young girl with blonde hair and pale skin. She had dark brown eyes, which stopped Scully for a moment. "Can I sit with you?" she asked politely. 

Scully nodded. "Sure." The little girl smiled and hopped up to sit next to her on the swing. She reminded Scully of Emily, with her smile and laugh. 

"Are you new here?" the girl asked, swinging her legs back and forth. 

Scully smiled. "I am, but my partner and I are just visiting for a little bit." It felt odd calling Mulder her partner, but she didn't have a better word. She had been calling him her partner for years, ever since they first started working together, back when their lives weren’t as intertwined as they are now. Mulder had been there for so much of her life: her abduction, her cancer, her struggles to become a mother, William, and their new lives after they ran away from the FBI. But what else could she call him? Not her boyfriend, even though their relationship was far from platonic. Yet, "partner" still sounded like they were arriving for their first case together in Oregon, what felt like forever ago.

"Who are you visiting?" 

"Just some friends," Scully answered. It wasn't like she could tell the girl why she was actually in town. 

"What's your name ma'am?" the girl asked, and Scully quietly sighed in relief when she didn’t push the subject. "I'm Emma." 

"I'm Dana," Scully said. "It's nice to meet you." 

Scully spoke to the girl for a few more minutes, before she suddenly got up from the swing. "I have to go now," she announced. "But I'll see you again." 

Scully smiled at her and nodded. "Okay." 

Emma disappeared back into the building just as Mulder came walking towards her, holding a pizza box and a bag that Scully assumed held drinks. "Hungry?" he asked. "We could discuss the case too."

Scully looked at him as he raised his eyebrows and held up the pizza box. "Yeah, let's go," she said, watching his smile grow. 

***

They set up for dinner in her room, dishing out the pizza and cracking open the beer that Mulder had bought. "You know we're breaking so many FBI protocols right now right?" Scully asked playfully as Mulder passed her a bottle. 

Mulder laughed quietly and shook his head in response. "We have been breaking FBI protocol for years," he said. "What are they going to do? Fire us again?"

"I'm just saying," Scully said, eyebrows raised. "Let's focus on the case after dinner." 

Mulder nodded before taking a bite of his pizza. "Hey, who was that little girl that was sitting with you when I pulled up?" 

"I'm not quite sure," Scully admitted. "She said her name was Emma and she asked if she could sit next to me. We didn't talk for long until she just got up and disappeared." 

"I didn't know anyone else was staying here," Mulder said. "I thought the woman who owns this place said we were the only ones. And as far as I'm aware, she doesn't have any children." 

"Well why else would she be here?" Scully asked. 

"You're not going to like my answer," Mulder said, taking a sip of beer. 

"You're not going to tell me she was dead are you? That she's a ghost? Because you know that's bullshit Mulder." 

"I never really believed in the myth, but I have heard of it before: the black-eyed children, or sometimes referred to as the shadow children." Scully immediately gave him a look of disbelief, but she didn't interrupt. "They're thought to be spirits that appear in the form of children with pale skin and dark eyes, hence the name. They often disappear suddenly, and no one really knows why they appear to those that see them.”

"I shouldn't even have to tell you that’s ridiculous," Scully said. "Just because a child has pale skin and dark eyes doesn't make them a ghost. Pale skin isn't uncommon, and there is a medical condition they could have called Aniridia that's characterized by a loss of some or all of the iris in someone's eye. Their eyes appear partially or completely black because the pupil is larger. The girl before had dark brown eyes, nothing else. And let's say for a second, that even if these spirits are real, and they're actually here, why would they kill those people? What are they after?" 

"I think the key to cracking this case is going to be finding the connection between all the victims, because there has to be one," Mulder said. "It's all the same killer, we just have to find out if these attacks were random or premeditated." 

They ate the rest of their food in silence, until Scully put down her beer bottle. "She reminded me of Emily, that little girl," she admitted out of nowhere. She didn't really know why she said it, but it had been plaguing her mind for a while. "She seemed happy."

Mulder saw the sad look on her face, and he put down his bottle as well, reaching across the small desk they were using as a table to take her hand. He watched as tears started to slip down Scully's face, but he didn't say anything. 

"I'm sorry," Scully said quietly. 

"Don't be," Mulder answered. "I'm here, if you need me." 

"Can you stay tonight?" she asked, voice quiet. 

Mulder nodded, and no other words were exchanged. Not even a quip about breaking FBI protocol, even though they absolutely were. They barely spoke for the rest of the night as they poured over the case files, desperately searching for a link they weren't sure they would find. Scully wasn't sure if Mulder would keep his word, but sure enough, when the lights went out, they were laying together. "She reminded me of Emily, and then I couldn't stop thinking about William," Scully said, turning to face Mulder in bed. "I can't stop thinking about how I failed him as a mother." 

"You didn't fail him," Mulder said, reaching to take her hand for the second time that night. "You did everything you could for him. Nothing that happened was your fault." 

"But I gave him up," Scully whispered, barely audible. 

Mulder shook his head. "Come here," he said, letting go of her hand and opening his arms so she could slip into his embrace. "You didn't fail him," he repeated softly. "If anything, this is my fault." 

"It's not your fault Mulder," she said, settling into his arms. "You did what you had to do. I don't blame you."

"We'll find him, I promise," he said, holding her a little tighter. "Whatever it takes." 

***

They were starting to hit a brick wall with the case. The autopsies revealed nothing new, and the mystery of the victims' facial expressions still remained. It wasn't until Mulder looked into the interpersonal histories of every victim that they found something. And even then, it wasn't what Scully wanted to hear, because it gave credence to his wild theory about the ghost children. 

"People in this town are incredibly gossipy," he said the moment he walked through the door and saw her. "I know more about random people in this town than I do half our colleagues at the FBI."

"Well, what did you find out?" 

"The link between all the victims is children, Scully. The doctor told us that the young couple had lost their child two years ago, and that's where it started to click for me. Then I asked about the old lady, and I found out that she had a falling out with her daughter about five years ago and she hasn't seen any of her grandchildren. And the college kid who was living here? Turns out he had moved away from an abusive family, but he hadn’t seen his younger siblings since he left. All of the victims had, in some way, lost relationships with children."

"And you're saying that because of this, they were all killed by..." 

"The shadow children! These spirits are thought to take the forms of young children who go around talking to those around them. That's why these victims were especially susceptible. They all probably saw one of the children and immediately wanted to protect or befriend them, because they probably reminded them of the child they lost." 

"So you're saying that's why I thought that girl the other day reminded me of Emily?” Scully said, eyebrows raised. “I still don't think she was a ghost Mulder. Ghosts don't rip out people's hearts." 

"I don't know Scully," he said, raising an eyebrow. "Don't you find it a little bit odd that this girl just approached you, when there isn't anyone else staying in the bed and breakfast besides us?"

"You know, things can be confusing, but that doesn't mean they're paranormal," Scully responded. 

"Do you have a better explanation?"

"Not yet, but when I do I doubt it will be based on child-spirits." 

***

Scully was sitting on the swing in front of the bed and breakfast when she saw Emma again. This time, she looked scared, and was beckoning for Scully to follow her. The girl's eyes widened in fear when Scully opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, so she didn't say anything. She started to follow the girl, shooting a quick text to Mulder to tell him what was going on and to ask him to meet her back at the b&b. If the little girl did turn out to be a murderer or ghost (or whatever Mulder was convinced she was), at least he knew where she was. When she looked up from her phone though, Emma was gone. 

She stepped forward and looked around, wondering where she could have gone. All she could do was continue to search through the hallways of the building, and she eventually came upon an old rickety staircase. The light switch didn't work, so the only light she had was that of her flashlight. She got to the bottom of the staircase, and stood face to face with an old wooden door. Gingerly taking the door handle and swinging the door open, there was no way she could have expected what she found behind it. 

Hanging on every wall were dozens of rusty old axes and saws, and Scully didn't need to look at them for long to realize that these weren't just for cutting wood, but that there was blood on them. A lot of it. She barely had time to react to the fact that she had just cracked the case before she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Without thinking, she drew the gun from her belt and pointed it at the figure walking towards her. "Whoa Scully, it's me, don't shoot!" the shape said, and she let out a breath as she recognized Mulder, with his hands raised. 

She was hesitant to lower her gun, but she did anyway. Mulder stepped closer to her and took in their surroundings. "I think we found the killer," he said quietly. 

"Yeah, I think so too." 

***

The rest of the case was a blur to Scully, and she could barely focus on anything. She followed protocol and just went through the motions, not really thinking about what she was doing. The owner of the bed and breakfast was taken into custody, and it felt like moments later they were on the plane back to Washington D.C. She leaned her head against Mulder's shoulder once they were in the air, but she couldn't fall asleep, even though she was bone tired. 

It was silent for a while before Mulder spoke up. "Hey, Scully?" 

"Yeah Mulder?" 

"When you texted me, you said that you had seen that girl again, but when I found you, she wasn't in the room." 

"I don't know what happened to her," Scully admitted. "I stopped thinking when I found the weapons, and then you scared me. I thought the owner had caught me." 

"So she just disappeared?" he asked, and she could hear the smile in his voice. "Like a ghost, perhaps?" 

"Oh shut up Mulder," was her response. He let out a small laugh and allowed her to fall asleep and lay on his shoulder for the remainder of the plane ride. 

As she unlocked her front door that night, Scully had to remind herself that the case was indeed closed, and that the murders were not, in fact, due to child spirits who appeared to those who had lost connections with children. But that girl, the one with Emily's smile, stuck at the back of her mind. 

That night she dreamed of William, and of the promise Mulder made when he had his arms wrapped around her the first night of the case: that they would find him, whatever it took.

_\- the end -_


End file.
